USA sweep pre-World Cup series with win over Nigeria

With Saturday's 2-1 win over Nigeria, the U.S. Men's National Team swept the three-game World Cup Sendoff series for the first time ever. On June 1, the USA beat Turkey 2-1 and previously shut out Azerbaijan on May 27.

Today, with friendly competition completed, the USMNT depart for South America to prepare for its Group G opener against Ghana on June 16 at Estadio Das Dunas in Natal.

Forward Jozy Altidore, who broke a 27-game scoreless streak for the USA and Sunderland, scored a brace versus Nigeria for a crowd of 52,033 on a hot day at EverBank Field in Jacksonville, Florida. While the first 31st minute goal was an easy tap-in finishing off a brilliant combination by Fabian Johnson and Alejandro Bedoya, his second in the 68th minute was slammer he collected from Michael Bradley, who also gave an outstanding performance and recorded his 10th assist. Altidore now has 23 international goals and looks to be in good form for World Cup Brazil.

“Nigeria is very similar to Ghana," said Altidore. "If we can emulate this performance against a team pretty similar to Nigeria against Ghana, we can start the group off the right way. We all want to get out of the group. That’s a goal of ours. I think the opportunity is there.”

U.S. defender Matt Besler drew a penalty in the 86th minute and Nigeria's Victor Moses spoiled the shutout by converting for the final 2-1 score.

In front of goalkeeper Tim Howard, head coach Jurgen Klinsmann started left back DaMarcus Beasley, right back Johnson and center backs Geoff Cameron and Besler. Defensive mids Jermaine Jones and Kyle Beckerman paired in the 4-2-3-1 formation, with Bedoya, Bradley and Clint Dempsey in front of them with Altidore on top.

In the 60th minute, Klinsmann subbed in Graham Zusi for Bedoya and in the 72nd minute, he brought in Mix Diskerud for Beckerman. Three minutes later, Timmy Chandler replaced Beasley and in the 80th minute, Omar Gonzalez entered for Altidore. Chris Wondolowski was the final sub, replacing Dempsey right after Nigeria's penalty.

With the start, goalkeeper Tim Howard (54-28-15) became the 15th U.S. MNT player to reach 100 caps and also broke Kasey Keller's all-time goalkeeper wins record for the United States.